A Miraculous Meeting and Friendship –Three Women from Different Countries Connected Over Tea in Kyoto
Imagine this: three women from Spain, Kenya, and Russia sign up for a tea ceremony. What kind of group would you envision?
I pictured them as international relations students at a university in an English-speaking country, bonding over a trip to Japan and deciding to try a tea ceremony.
At Komurasaki An, our booking form only asks for the group leader’s name, email, phone number, and the nationalities of all participants. We don’t ask for age, gender, or names. So, until we meet in person, we don’t know if they’re male or female, family, or friends. (I’m planning to improve this in the future.)
So, was my guess about these three women of different nationalities correct? When I asked, “Are you college students?”, they all replied, “I’m working.” One of them excitedly added, “I have two children.” My prediction was wrong. “So, how did you all meet? At work?” Their answer was, “On the internet.” My curiosity was piqued. “When did you actually meet?” They replied without hesitation, “Today!”
Can you believe it? They had met for the first time today and had come to the tea ceremony. They were laughing and acting like old friends. The tea ceremony was filled with laughter and questions and passed by very quickly.
After the tea ceremony, while they were relaxing in another room, I gave each of them a personalized certificate of completion for tea ceremony workshop with their own photos. Three hours had already passed, and it was 6 PM.
“What are you going to do next?” One of them replied, “We’re going to downtown Kawaramachi, eat, and maybe go to karaoke!” As it was getting dark, both Naoko and I had errands near Kawaramachi, so we offered to give them a ride. “Thank you!” they said, all with big smiles on their faces.
In the car, we talked about various things: their families, politics, and their respective countries.
Just before arriving in Kawaramachi, I asked, “Where are your hotels?” Interestingly, they were all staying at different hotels. “Where are you going tomorrow?” One was going to Nara, another to Korea, and the third to the Kanto region. They were all going their separate ways. In other words, today was the only day they would be together. It was truly a chance encounter. I hope they will never forget this miraculous day. I watched as they got out of the car and disappeared into the crowd.
